Month 26: February 14 - March 13

SICK
This month’s biggest news was Madeleine’s first real sickness. She’s had colds, but this was the first thing to affect her stomach and to really make her feed bad. And what was worse, Matt and I both got the stomach flu too!

It started on a Sunday morning. Madeleine woke up around 5am and was sick. It was scary because we’d eaten spaghetti the night before, so in the dark, it looked a bit like blood. BUT it was not, thankfully. Anyway, we kept her home from church, and she seemed normal. We thought it was something she’d eaten.

That night, after sleeping about 2 hours, she woke up sick again, the first of three times within the space of an hour. It was so awful, knowing she had no clue what was happening. Fortunately, she was drinking almost non-step between being sick. After the third episode, we got her clean and dry and I held her while Matt tried to get some sleep.

But she was HOT. Her feet were hot, everything was hot. So I got Matt up and he went to get a new thermometer (the one we had wasn’t working!). When he returned, he checked her temp and discovered that it was 103.4! YIKES! He jumped on the computer to see what to do. We gave her some ibuprofen (all we had), and I called the on-call people at Madeleine’s pediatrician. This was around 1:30am Monday morning.

Madeleine’s temp came down, to 101, then 99, over the course of an hour and a half (or so). The nurse on the phone wanted me to wake Madeleine at 2:30 and see if I could get her to interact with me. I was to try and make her smile or laugh. I’m going, lady, really? She’s miserable! But I tried, with no success. This slightly concerned the nurse, and she told me to take Madeleine to the doctor in the morning.

Madeleine spent a lot of time that night with daddy, until he put her in bed around 5am. There were no more throw-up episodes, but we did have some of the other.

Anyway, when I took her to the doc, she was lethargic but nothing else. Doc said to keep her hydrated, watch her temp. Gave us a prescription for some vomiting medicine, but we did not need it.

She slept off and on all morning, then went down for a nap around her normal time. I held her and rocked for a while after she was asleep, but decided to put her in her bed so I could eat. I walked into the living room around 1:30pm and Matt said, “I don’t feel so good.”

Uh-oh.

Sure enough, he was sick too.

I was concerned about getting sick because I’m pregnant, and I knew dehydration was a potentially big deal with a baby. I went out to get some things we’d need before it hit me while Matt and Madeleine slept. Then she woke up, feeling quite bad, and laid on dada for a long while in the room. I snapped three pictures before she protested greatly.


That's Matt asking for more gatorade!

I called Mimi around 3 to tell her what was up and see if she could possibly come. With all of us sick, it would be HARD to take care of Madeleine the way she needed. I told her I thought I would get sick too. After working it out, she left around 5pm, right around the time I finally showed my first symptom.

There were some nice things that happened that day. I loved holding Madeleine so much; she isn’t too snuggly or cuddly, so I did enjoy that close time. The three of us also spent a lot of that afternoon in our bed together, and I got to watch Madeleine fall asleep in broad daylight. Madeleine also spent some time sleeping in our bed with me. I don’t know when during the sick period that was, but it was a treat.

Anyway, Matt recovered the quickest and was able to get up and be productive. Madeleine remained lethargic through Tuesday morning and lunch. By that afternoon, she was starting to show signs of life. But she still slept a whole bunch, ate and drank very little, and had other symptoms of still being under the influence of the bug.

I took the longest to recover, I don’t know why. Maybe being pregnant? It was over a week before I felt somewhat normal again, maybe another half a week before I felt fully better.

HUGE thanks to Mimi for coming to our rescue! And thankfully, she did not catch the bug we all had.

LITTLE-BIG THINGS
~ Madeleine spent a LOT of time with daddy while she was sick and after, as I recovered. For a long while, probably until SuSu’s visit, daddy was her favorite. She wanted him to do many things for her that I used to do, including put her down for some naps. It’s one of those things that is nice and frustrating at the same time. LOL.

~ Sleep has been really strange this month. LONG naps, 2.5-3.5 hours, so Madeleine has been staying up later. And sleeping in later. Until 7:30 one morning! Matt and I don’t quite know what to make of it. We were fine with it for a few weeks until we decided that her quality of sleep wasn’t as good with longer naps and shorter nights. We thought maybe we should wake her from naps, but the one or two times we did, it was awful, so we just went with “let her sleep.”

~ Because of these later mornings, we started staying for lunch at church. Usually, one of us would stay and the other take Madeleine home for her nap. It is super nice! The first two Sundays, particularly, were fun because Madeleine got to play with Emmeline, her friend 8 months younger. They were SO cute together, attracting the attention of all the adults in the vicinity, who were still eating. There’d be a chorus of “Aww”s every now and then.

~ One of my favorite Madeleine/Emmeline interactions was when Emmeline had Lesli’s makeup bag. It closed by a zipper. I said, “Better watch out, Madeleine knows how to open those now.” Emmeline still didn’t. After a minute or two, Emmeline appeared with something out of the bag. Sure enough, Madeleine had gone to investigate and opened the bag. Haha.

~ Other cute interactions: Emmeline putting her necklace on Madeleine; Madeleine saying Emmeline’s name (“emm’wine”); Madeleine wanting Emmeline to sit beside her on a chair.

~ After seeing Layla play with a stick in the back yard, Madeleine decided she wanted to do it too. And who could blame her? It looked so fun! She does it almost every time we go outside for a long time now. Sticks of all sizes, and mommy and daddy have to get into the action too, of course!



~ She’s started wanting me to take her picture. I’m working on an “ABC” book for her, with pictures of things she sees every day. So I’ve been taking a lot of pictures, and Madeleine has been “helping” by suggesting things for me to capture. That has started to include her! She doesn’t smile, and usually she is holding something, and she brings it up right under her chin. This makes it hard to get the object in the picture. And she also walks right up next to me, making it hard to get her in the frame. OH WELL, it is super fun.

~ When I was little, I was apparently known for my frown. When Madeleine was born, Mimi remarked that she’d inherited my frown. We hadn’t really seen much of it since then … until now. And BOY, does she have a good frown! The bad part is that it’s so funny, I usually can’t help but laugh, or at least want to laugh. And she usually frowns when I’ve told her something she didn’t want to hear. Oh well. I didn’t get any good pics of the frown, but I can work on that for next month.

~ SHE SAID “I LOVE YOU!!” for the first time! She has been saying “I love her,” “I love him,” for awhile, but never “I love YOU.” But she did! It’s awesome!

~ She also said, “I love you ... Lamby loves Madeleine,” while holding Lamby about an inch away from her face. Matt, who witnessed this sweetness, said it was very neat.

~ Another phrase she’s picked up is “I’m glad to see you,” usually reserved for when daddy gets home. :)

~ Other fun phrases: “Are you home, dada?” “Did you have a good day, mama?” (The latter said after I ask Matt the same question at dinner. Everyone gets asked the question.

~ I believe we’re seeing the transition from “dada, mama” to “daddy, mommy.” It’s funny, Matt and I both prefer dada and mama. Probably because it’s what she originally called us. We know it couldn’t last, so we just have to get used to daddy and mommy.

~ Milk--er, SILK--mustache!



~ After getting over the sickness, we noticed a shift in Madeleine’s book preferences. She started requesting longer, more involved stories, like “Goldilocks and the three bears.” The board books seem to have fallen from her favor. I think they just aren’t as interesting, don’t hold her attention anymore. It’s good that we have some longer stories on her shelves; need to get some more, I suppose. Or start taking her to the library on a regular basis. THAT sounds like a good idea.

~ I mentioned recently (maybe week 104?) that Madeleine counted to six. She certainly can, but more often than not, she counts, “one, three, four, five,” no matter how many objects she is counting. This is when she counts on her own, but I’ve noticed that if I prompt her to count and say “one,” she can count a little higher than six, 7 or 8, in the correct order. It’s interesting; I wonder what it means.

~ I mentioned last month about Madeleine saying “you’re welcome.” She’s gotten much better at it, and she now says “thank you” whenever someone does something for her. It’s not 100% of the time, but more often than not, if she makes a special request, she says thank you. She said, “Thank you, Dada,” when he brought her blankie. She also said thank you to Michaiah at church when she handed Madeleine a book that had fallen. I was proud. Haha. “Please” is still a work in progress. She doesn’t know how to phrase the question correctly (i.e., “may I have a fork?”) much less know where to put the please. Though, a few times, I’ve heard her say, “more yogurt, please.”

~ I do have a favorite word-of-the-month: “bewldy.” It means belly. IT IS SO ADORABLE. She says, “Look at my bewldy.” :)

~ Madeleine has been talking for quite a while, but she hasn’t really tried singing. Near the end of this month, though, she said, “I’m singing.” And her song consisted of “dada, dada, dada…” and “SuSu, SuSu, SuSu.” Enchanting!

~ Last but not least in this section: Apparently we’ve reached the “terrific twos.” That’s what SuSu said, anyway. Here’s what I mean:

Me: Madeleine, do you want a drink?
Madeleine: Yes.
[I start fixing her a cup]
Madeleine: No. [frown]
[I stop fixing it]
Madeleine: Yes. [bigger frown, whine] No. Yes.

Substitute just about anything for my question, and you have an idea of life right now! And forget about offering her a choice (milk or water). It’s not too bad, really, can be frustrating when we have to make a quick decision or we’re in a hurry. But those times aren’t too often. Matt and I have kinda decided that her first response is what she really wants, but then she thinks about it too much. Or something. I do know that toddlers start exercising independence and push boundaries, so I’m sure that’s part of it! I just have to pray for extra patience.

SUSU’S VISIT
SuSu came for a visit this month, and she was an immediate hit with Madeleine. It started with a huge grin upon seeing SuSu for the first time, and it continues with Madeleine talking or asking about SuSu after her departure. They had a wonderful time together, and SuSu even got to put Madeleine down for a nap.

SuSu took Madeleine on a walk just about every day, Madeleine’s favorite being the day it had rained and there was a large puddle just down the street.

{video: puddle} We went swinging, shopping, and had all kinds of fun playing at home. SuSu brought a belated Christmas present from one of Madeleine’s second cousins (?). There was a package of play-dough and a set of stringing beads. Both were huge hits. Madeleine and SuSu made necklaces for everyone in the house (except Madeleine, oddly!), including big bear, little bear, lamby, and weasel ball. The play-dough was fun to make balls or use the lids of the colors (which had molds in them) to form animal shapes.

We had a blast with SuSu and hope she comes back soon!

SPECIAL PICS: PRECIOUS SMILES!




SLIDESHOW